The number of homes being offered for sale is rising heading into the softer part of the summer, a sign that higher home prices could be encouraging more sellers to test the market, according to a report released Tuesday.

Nationally, the number of homes for sale stood 5.2% below the levels of a year earlier. But inventories rose by 1.4% from June, an indication that the inventory crunch could finally be easing, data from Realtor.com showed. Compared with June, listings rose in 17 of the 30 cities.

The 1.96 million homes listed for sale was the highest since last September, according to the report. Read More »

Housing inventory has jumped by 25% so far this year, outpacing normal seasonal increases, according to figures released Thursday by Realtor.com.

There were some 1.85 million homes listed for sale at the beginning of May, which is still historically low. May’s listings rose by 5.8% from April’s level but stood 10% below year-earlier levels. They were still the lowest for the month of May since Realtor.com began its count in 2007.

Still, the upturn in listings so far this year suggests rising home prices are encouraging more buyers to test the market. So far this year inventories have increased by around 375,000 through April compared to increases of just 45,000 for the same period in 2011 and 108,000 in 2012. Still, the increase is lower than the jump of 442,000 in 2010, when tax credits fueled a surge in housing demand. Read More »

The number of homes listed for sale in April increased by about 8% from the same month last year, a sign that rising prices may be inducing more Americans to put their homes up for sale, according to a report from real-estate brokerage ZipRealty, which measured listings in 24 major metro areas.

The number of listings outpaced the level of homes that went under contract in April, according to the ZipRealty figures. “It’s less of an indication of buyer momentum flagging and more of seller momentum picking up, finally,” said Lanny Baker, the company’s chief executive.

The report found that homes sold in April had been on the market for 32 days, compared to 48 days last April. Mr. Baker said that while rising prices could certainly be fueling more sellers to test the market, other metrics could be an equally powerful motivator: namely, the prospect that homes are spending less time on the market. Read More »

The number of homes offered for sale rose by 4% in April from March, according to Realtor.com.

More homes came on the market in April, but buyer demand for them remained strong.

The number of homes offered for sale rose by 4% in April from March, but was still down by 13.5% from last year’s level, according to data compiled by Realtor.com. Inventories typically rise in the spring as the home-sales season gets into high gear. Asking prices rose by 2.6% in April and were 3.1% above last year’s levels.

Half of homes listed for sale in April had been on the market for at least 81 days. That was down by 2.4% from March and down by 11% from one year ago, more evidence that homes are spending less time on the market. Read More »

The number of homes for sale fell to its lowest level in at least five years in October, dropping by 17% from one year ago and 34% from two years ago, according to a report released Wednesday.

Fewer than 1.76 million homes were listed for sale last month, down by 2.6% from September, according to Realtor.com, a listings website. Compared with one year ago, listings fell in all but five of 146 markets.

Inventories have been falling for more than a year, first as investor demand surged and later, as traditional buyers, have returned to more markets. Meanwhile, banks have slowed down their foreclosure processes in many states, and many homeowners have taken their homes off the market. Read More »

The number of homes for sale in September dropped by 2.2% from August, by 17.8% from last year, and by 34.3% from two years ago, according to data from Realtor.com, a listings website.

Slightly more than 1.8 million homes were listed for sale in September, the third lowest level of the year, behind January and February, which are traditionally the slowest months of the year for home sales. Inventories have been falling amid stronger demand from home buyers, which is helping to firm up prices. Median asking prices rose by 0.8% in September from August. Inventories are also low because many would-be sellers don’t have enough equity in their homes or aren’t willing to sell at prices that are still down by nearly 30% from their peak six years ago. Read More »

Tuesday’s measure of June home prices from the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city index is likely to turn positive when compared with one year ago for the first time in two years, according to a forecast by Zillow Inc.

Prices have risen this summer for a simple reason: more buyers have chased fewer properties. But the drop in supply and the boost in demand isn’t the only reason that Case-Shiller is now turning positive. Another related factor is that the share of non-distressed home sales is rising and the share of distressed sales—foreclosures and short sales, mostly—is falling.

(Case-Shiller reports prices using a three-month moving average with a two month lag. Several other home price indices have also shown bigger-than-usual price gains for the second quarter.)

The decline in the distressed share is important for the housing market, and especially for home-price indexes like Case-Shiller. Read More »

It’s no secret to anyone who has paid attention to housing markets over the past year that the number of homes for sale has dropped sharply.

New interactive maps from Zillow help show where the inventory declines have been the most dramatic and at what price points. For example, in Phoenix, where inventory was down in June by nearly 48% from one year ago, the biggest decline is for the least expensive third of the housing market, where supplies are down by 67%. This reflects heavy demand from investors for cheap properties that can be held off the market and rented at a profit. Read More »

Median asking prices stopped rising in July, a sign that the end of the summer home-sales season is also bringing to a close large price gains seen earlier this year.

Sellers’ listing prices were down by just 0.05% in July, but that was the first decline of the year. Asking prices were still 2.6% above year-ago levels, according to data released Wednesday by Realtor.com.

Some 61 markets posted declines in asking prices in July compared with June, while 35 posted no change, and 50 markets saw increases. The largest monthly increases came in Seattle (3.7%), San Jose, Calif. (3.5%), and Atlanta (2.9%). The largest monthly declines were seen in Minneapolis (-3.4%), Pittsburgh (-2.7%), and Washington, D.C. (-2.3%). Read More »

Home sales have now posted year-over-year gains in each of the last nine months. But in almost all of those months, the number of homes for sale has declined. On Thursday, the National Association of Realtors reported that inventories fell by 1.3% in March, leaving inventories 21.8% below their year-earlier levels.